Welcome to June

So this past Saturday was absolutely perfect in SpringBilly. Mid-80's, not a cloud in the sky. Abby and I decided to make the most of it and spend a majority of the day at the pool. Of course I had to mow the yard and clean the garage before we left, but that usually takes 2-3 hours, max. Everything was going great until I decided to thaw the fridge in the garage. Since it was so nice, I was just walking around in flip-flops, taking the shelves out and sitting them in the sun to thaw. Well, someone at Whirlpool FORGOT to tell me that the bottom shelf is just a piece of glass that is not secured to anything. It's just sitting on top of some holders. So, I pick up the holders, pull our the shelf, turn it on its side, and WHAM! Out comes the 6000 pound sheet of tempered glass. Luckily it didn't break. That's because my big toe absorbed the blow. Please remember, smart guy here isn't wearing shoes! It hurt so bad. I was expecting to see my big toe missing and blood everywhere. Nope. Nothing. Just a little scrape. When Abby came out to see what happened, I had to point to where it hit.

Fast forward to Sunday night, 8:00 pm. After grilling some burgers and limping around all day on my foot (the one with the large toenail the color of Midnight Purple...use your imagination), I decided I had had enough. So I jumped on the Internet and looked for ways to relieve the pressure. Because if anyone knows how to get blood out from under the toenail, it has to be some Joe in New Jersey that decided to try something and it worked so he wrote about it online.

(Editor's Note: The following isn't pretty. We have photos and video but won't post. Yet.)
So Abby and I first decide to try Option #2. We heated up a paperclip and tried to burn a hole in the top of my nail to open it up. We didn't get the clip hot enough or I'm just a wimp because nothing happened. So then we went to Option #1. We get out one of Abby's leftover syringe needles from the IVF (New. Unused.) and she begins to slowly drill it into the nail. I don't remember the last time I felt pain like that.
(Editor's Note: Us guys have NO PAIN TOLERANCE. ZERO. Abby just kept laughing at me the whole day as I limped around. I think she might have actually enjoyed poking a hole in my nail with the needle.)

So, she drills deep enough (barely at all) to strike blood. And what do you know, it worked. Relived some of the pressure. Some. I'm still a big baby and today I'm rocking the open sandals at work because I can't put shoes on. Weak. I know. Incredibly weak.

So, besides the fact that I am going to have a gross/painful toenail for the summer, it was an amazing weekend. Once again Abby proved to be the most awesome wife ever. Still debating about posting photos of the surgery and toe. Stay tuned.

Oh yeah, since this blog really is about our adoption, we got some news over the past couple of days. Looks like the "abandonment issues" in Ethiopia are slowly getting cleared up. Rumor is it should all be worked out by the end of June. Luckily, this hasn't directly affected us since we don't have a referral yet. Plus, there were lots of referrals yesterday for a group we are connected to. (Still not 100% sure how we are connected, but we all write checks to the same organization in one way or another.) Lots of referrals hopefully just brings us closer to the top of the list.

My referral date projection is June 21 (Father's Day) -- Abby has July 27th. We are going to start a pool if you're interested. $1,000.00 to enter and the winner gets a high-five and we use the money to travel to Ethiopia. See, everyone wins!